Chapter 5

May 16th, 2006

"Does she honestly have to snore so loud?" Paul grumbled and took a bite of his apple, glaring harshly at the tent that the two girls shared. He was the only one awake currently and he was admittedly baffled by the way Dawn and Drew could easily sleep through the racket. He could barely fall asleep with a fan on because of the noise. He wasn't a person that could sleep with excess background noise; it was hard enough with the noises of the night-time pokémon. He held his gaze on the pink tent for a moment longer before turning around and continuing eating. His pokémon sat around him, having a moment of early morning rest, it was a cooler morning which was strange for Hoenn. It was a comfortable weather because it was what Sinnoh normally felt like in the spring. Torterra was somewhere between sleep and the real world while Weavile was chattering happily with Honchcrow, and Aagron and Hariyama were having what seemed to be an arm wrestling challenge.

There was a prodding on his back, he looked down and saw Dawn's Piplup, staring up at him while rubbing an eye tiredly. It let out a yawn then mumbled, "Pip..." He pointed to the bowl Weavile was eating out of. "Piplup." He looked back up at Paul and yawned yet again. Paul rolled his eyes, staring at Piplup who stared right back. He let out a grumble before reaching into his bag and pulled out a can of his pokémon food.

"You need some of this, you're too weak." Piplup glared up at him and slapped its flipper against Paul's leg in a frustrated manner.

"Pip! Piplup!" Paul shoved the pokémon away with his foot before taking the bowl Torterra finished eating out of and dumped the contents in it before placing the bowl in front of the water type. Paul picked Torterra's bowl because it wouldn't care if Piplup ate out of it, now with his other pokémon; that was a whole different story.

"Don't hit me, if you want to win those stupid contests you need real food. Not those ridiculous poffin things she gives you. You'll look more like a Spheal than whatever you really are."

Piplup glared at him, scooping out a handful of the kibble and threw it at Paul who narrowly moved out of the way. "Don't waste it! That cost me a lot of money!" Piplup smirked at this and reached into the bowl again. "Don't you dare!" Paul hissed. Piplup tossed the piece of food before blowing a bubblebeam at him. There was a giggle from behind, Paul glanced over and glared at Dawn. "You spoil this fat bratty bird too much. I hate it." He wrung out a part of his shirt; there was a big dark gray spot on it.

"Oh well," Dawn shrugged, "Piplup's not going anywhere sorry."

Paul rubbed his face. "Don't follow me." He turned and angrily trudged away.

"Eat that." Dawn pointed to the food. "I think it was really kind of Paul to feed you, you should've been nicer you know." Piplup rolled it eyes and flopped itself onto the ground, finally starting to eat the food. "Don't be so mean; Paul's not exactly good with people, or pokémon." Something grabbed a hold of both of her hands, pulling her forward and causing her to almost fall. "What are you doing?" She asked Torterra who was pulling her like an excited child would to their mother, Weavile on the other side. They stopped and Weavile pointed towards the direction Paul had disappeared to. "He told me not to-" She got cut off as another one shoved her from behind.

"Just go." She heard May say groggily, Dawn hadn't even noticed the cease in snoring. "He'll like it if you're there."

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"Just go! I wanna sleep in peace." May all but whined.

"Fine, fine." Dawn sighed exasperated before walking through the bushes, not bothering with weaving her way around the underbrush, a few scratches were okay she supposed. "Paul?" She called once she got a reasonable distance away. She turned around and jumped slightly when she noticed him leaning against a tree, arms crossed over his chest and his eyes closed. He looked as if he was sleeping, but Dawn knew better.

"I told you not to follow me. You're just as annoying as your pokémon. Probably spoiled like them too."

"I am not!" She walked over to him and stood next to him. "I spoil my pokémon because they're my family. Are your pokémon your family?" Dawn cherished her pokémon as if they were her children, she had no siblings, not like Paul did, or May, and to be honest, she was very jealous of him. Though having no father in her life since she was young, that thought was soon banished.

"No."

"Oh come on, they're always there for you are they not? They're family; you just don't want to admit it, like Reggie is. Also why do you get into moods over silly things? Piplup really does like you, he was just teasing; he does it to me too."

"I'm not in a mood."

Dawn held back another bout of laughter. "Yes you are." A thought suddenly struck her, "How about you teach me and my pokémon to battle better? I'd really appreciate it."

"You battle fine."

Dawn froze, her eyes widened at this. "W-what?" She stared at him. "Do you really think so?"

"If you won that ribbon, then yes."

"Can you help me get better then? I want to be able to beat you someday!"

Paul opened his eyes and pulled away from the tree, walking deeper into the forest. "Maybe after lunch," He said.

"Why not now?" Dawn hurried after him, "You always have to strive for the best right? Not for what's good enough. I have much more room to get better!" She grinned up at him. He stopped, causing her to run straight into his back. She placed a hand on it and pushed herself backwards, "Oops, sorry." She mumbled. She felt a light blush of embarrassment creep up her cheeks.

"We'll be late for your next contest; you don't want to miss it."

"We won't! It'll help me win that ribbon for sure!"

"Go get them."

"What?" This confused her. Was he actually going to help her?

"Go get your pokémon; mine will come once they see you." He turned his head to peer at her from over his shoulder.

She leapt at him and engulfed him in a hug, another one. He didn't know why. "Thank you Paul!" She pulled herself away and quickly dashed off, a big grin painted on her face.

"She's really... annoying." He muttered.

Paul could feel the ground trembling beneath him, he turned around and sure enough, Dawn was standing there, pokéballs in hand and Torterra behind her. Honchcrow and Weavile were happily perched on him. Upon seeing their trainer they hurried off and stood next to Torterra instead.

"The other ones fell asleep; I didn't want to wake them." Dawn said. Paul shrugged, at this moment he didn't really care about what his other pokémon did in their free time. He was feeling nicer today.

"Which pokémon are you going to use in your next contest?" He asked.

Dawn thought for a moment, "Well, it's another double contest. Oh yeah! You didn't see that one, May was my opponent and-"

"What pokémon are you using?" He repeated.

Dawn rolled her eyes and threw two pokéballs into the air, and in a flash of red, Pachirisu and Mamoswine. "I want to use my ice chandelier trick, it's both an offensive move, but I might use it in my appeal. I haven't decided yet."

Paul looked over both pokémon, then to his own. "Weavile come here." The pokémon scurried over to Paul's side. "Use the attack on Weavile." He looked down at the pokémon. "Don't let it hit you." Weavile nodded once and bounced in front of his trainer.

"Vile!" The ice type chanted. Pachirisu and Mamswine glanced at each other then took their spot on the opposite side.

"Okay! Mamoswine, ice shard!" A small ball of ice began to form between Mamoswine's tusks. It slammed its front feet into the ground, causing it to rumble. The ball of ice shattered and the shards flew at Pachirisu, surrounding it in another, larger ball of ice. "Pachirisu run and use discharge!" The ball slowly began to roll towards Weavile, picking up speed quickly. Blue strings of electricity crackled inside. As Pachirisu was almost about to hit Weavile, it punched out its arm, its claws were glowing a bright white colour.

"How many times have you used this move?" Paul asked, eying the panting Pachirisu.

Dawn scratched the back of her head. "I don't use too much; it's still not how I want it to be like even after all this time. It's worked a few times but not as many as I've practiced. Usually I train to use it in many contests but I just scrap the idea because it either fails or gets easily broken like it did with Weavile. That's why I was hoping you could help me strengthen it." She shrugged. "I've created different moves that used this as a sort of starting point but I like the idea of this one and I want to use it more than the slight chance of it actually working in a contest."

"It's difficult. When the ice is too thin it's easy to break, but easy to maneuverer. When it's too thick it's a good heavy defence shield, but Pachirisu won't be able to move it, it will exceed its own weight. Do it again." Dawn glanced to who two pokémon and nodded to them. Pachirisu and Mamoswine nodded back to her. Mamoswine threw another ice shard at Pachirisu who had already covered itself in blue electricity. Paul neared the still moving ice. He knocked on it, startling the running Pachirisu. "Come and see, the ice is too thin." Dawn walked up to his side.

"But you said that if it was any thicker than Pachirisu wouldn't be heavy enough to make it move right?"

Paul shrugged, "You could try to get Mamoswine to make the ice a little thicker, if the ice is this thin than the move isn't as strong as it can be. Train the move first before you try to do this again. Then it will be easier to make the move weaker if it's needed to. If the move is stronger then it will help with battles, it will cause more damage." The ice suddenly shattered, letting Pachirisu free. "Weavile come." The pokémon walked over, giving Pachirisu a look. "Use your ice beam on this thing. Make it end up like Mamoswine's ice shard."

Weavile gave Paul a curt nod and gestured for Pachirisu to back up. The electric squirrel looked uncertain but with a little bit of proddig from Dawn it finally moved back a reasonable amount.

"Vile weavile."

Pachirisu frowned at whatever Weavile had said. "Pachi pachi!"

"Wea!" Weavile hissed.

"Pachi!" Electricity crackled around the smaller pokémon.

There was a rumbling from under foot as large vines erupted in front of each pokémon. "Terra!" Torterra shouted, walking forward.

Dawn gasped and raced forward. "Are you okay Pachirisu?" Pachirisu pointed an accusing paw at Weavile. Dawn gave her pokémon a small smile. "I know you probably don't really like working with Paul's pokémon but for this once can you please? It will be really helpful for us." Pachirisu turned and gave Weavile a long hard stare before slouching over with a sigh.

"Pachi."

Dawn picked up her pokémon and spun around with it. "Oh thank you Pachirisu!" She set the electric squirrel back on the ground and it begrudgingly faced Weavile again.

"Don't start things." Paul grunted to his own pokémon. "I want to get this over with so we can leave again." Weavile grunted in response giving Pachirisu a glare. "Ice beam." Paul called lazily. Weavile formed a small, bright blue ball between its hands and fired a long beam at Pachirisu. The beam circled Pachirisu rather than hit it straight on, which Dawn found to be incredible. Without Dawn's orders, Pachirisu began to run in circles, shooting out small blue sparks from its body. When the light disappeared and Pachirisu stopped its spark, Paul approached the solid sphere of ice; Dawn followed his lead, approaching it as well. He knocked on it.

"You can already tell that the ice is thicker."

Dawn leaned forward and knocked on it herself, the sound was much deeper. "You're right, but," She held up a finger, "Can Pachirisu move it?" She looked at her pokémon. Pachirisu took a step and the sphere moved with it. "How did you make it like that?" She looked between Paul and Weavile.

"I'll teach it ice beam or strengthen its ice shard. Whichever one you want."

Dawn looked over her shoulder at Mamoswine. "Would you like to be taught by Paul?" Without a second though Mamoswine nodded its head. The idea of learning from a competitive battler did sound appealing. Dawn nodded, "Alright, do you want to learn ice beam?" This though took longer for a reply, Mamoswine shook its head. "Okay." She nodded once. "Sounds like a plan."